Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 119:145

I cried with my whole heart. In all your closet duties God looks first and most to your hearts: "My son, give me thine heart": Proverbs 23:26. It is not a piece, it is not a corner of the heart, that will satisfy the Maker of the heart; the heart is a treasure, a bed of spices, a royal throne wherein he delights. God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are; nor yet at the arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are; nor yet at the music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness of your voice, nor yet at the logic of your prayers; but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are. There is no prayer acknowledged, approved, accepted, recorded, or rewarded by God, but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly. The true mother would not have the child divided. God loves a broken and a contrite heart, so he loathes a divided heart: Psalms 51:17; James 1:8. God neither loves halting nor halving; he will be served truly and totally. The royal law is, "Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul." Among the heathens, when the beasts were cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if the heart was naught, the sacrifice was rejected. Verily, God rejects all those sacrifices wherein the heart is not. Prayer without the heart is but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Prayer is only lovely and weighty, as the heart is in it, and no otherwise. It is not the lifting up of the voice, nor the wringing of the hands, nor the beating of the breasts, nor an affected tone, nor studied motions, nor seraphical expressions, but the stirrings of the heart, that God looks at in prayer. God hears no more than the heart speaks. If the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf. No prayer takes with God, but that which is the travail of the heart. Thomas Brooks.

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Outlines Upon Keywords of the Psalm, By Pastor C. A. Davis.

Ver. 145-152. The believer's cry. The reiterated cry (Psalms 119:145-148) An appeal for audience (Psalms 119:149). The nearness of the enemy (Psalms 119:150). But, in response to the cry, God is also near (Psalms 119:151).

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Ver. 145-148. The cry.

1. Whence it came: from my heart.

2. Whither it went: to the Lord.

3. When it was heard: at dawn and dark.

4. What it sought: hearing, salvation.

5. What it promised: obedience.

6. How it was sustained: by hope in God's word. C.A.D.

Ver. 145,146. The souls cry.

1. The depth from which it rose.

2. The height it reached.

Ver. 145,146. Childlike prayer.

1. In its ring: "I cried."

2. In its directness: "to thee."

3. In its outburst: "whole heart."

4. In its outcries: "hear me"; "save me."

5. In its promise of better behaviour: "I will keep thy statutes." W.B.H.